We're gonna open our Bibles this evening and talk about a theme that I don't think I've ever talked about before. We've been on family matters, on building families of faith over the last many weeks. I think we started this back in September, and we've been highlighting everything from raising little ones to teens to working on our marriages together this evening. We're on the other end of the spectrum as we talk about ministering to aging parents. The psalmist prayed in Psalm 71 and verse nine, cast me not off in the time of old age, forsake me not when my strength faileth. I wonder how many in this room have been caregivers for their aging parents or are presently caregivers for their aging parents. You might wanna look around. It's a common thing, isn't it? There may be some even in this room this evening who are presently caregivers and come under people now call the sandwich generation. Ministering to aging parents on this end, ministering to children on the other end, and sandwiched in between. I wonder how many in this room have had their parents live with them or their grandparents live with them while providing care for those older members of your family. How many have had that situation? Okay, quite a few. Those can bring wonderful memories and also a great deal of challenge along the way. Back in 2022, a survey was done and it demonstrated that 17.3% of the American population today is over 65 years of age, 17.3%. But the American reality is that we have an aging population. Within that aging population, 22% will be over the age of 65 by the year 2050. Currently, there are 60 million Americans who are over the age of 65. And to care for those 60 million Americans, 25 to 30 million Americans are classified as caregivers. caregivers, giving care to the aging population round about us. By the way, for quite a few years, Japan was number one in people in their country who were over the age of 100. America has also been very close on that, people in their country with most people over 100. Today, the oldest population in the world is China. America comes in, I believe, either second or third, so we are one of the older people groups, if you will, on the planet. Good healthcare provides for that, good regiments of exercise and diet, a number of things that we are blessed by, and I believe, and I'll emphasize this this evening, I think it's a blessing to have an older generation that's growing. And while many people will look at that and say, no, it's a challenge, it's a burden, I think the Bible clearly teaches it ought to be looked at as a blessing. 66% of the caregivers in America are women. And if you do any study on this topic at all, you'll find that those who are caregivers often encounter great levels of stress. And with those great levels of stress, they lose social connections, often because of the schedule that they are handling. They battle insomnia. They deal with depression. and often heart disease comes with it. A lot of people who know this and have been in this situation realize that often as the person who is aging is receiving care, the caregiver is more rapidly aging than they otherwise would. And sometimes when that one for whom care has been given is taken home to glory, the one who's left behind finds themselves with many surgical needs and many other physical needs along the way. It's interesting as Americans age, we're aging in a culture that's increasingly losing its biblical values. And so I think that's one of the important reasons for us to consider this together as a church family tonight. Worldwide, one in six seniors, this is according to the World Health Organization, worldwide, one in six senior adults over the age of 60 has been abused. One in three health care workers admit to having abused someone in their care. Elder abuse is prevalent. Elder abuse is expanding. It could be financial exploitation. It could be physical abuse, emotional abuse, and many different ways where the aging population feels the burden of not being appreciated And not just not being appreciated, but being abused by those who were there to give care. If you take your Bible and turn to the book of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter 28, I'm going to put a portion of this passage up on the PowerPoint this evening. But in Deuteronomy chapter 28, God is speaking to the nation of Israel. And as he speaks to the nation of Israel, he speaks to them in prospect of going into the Holy Land. into the land of promise. Moses is speaking to the children of Israel as the ambassador of God. And as we read in verse 47, Deuteronomy 28, 47 says, because thou servest not the Lord thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things, Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies, which the Lord shall send against thee in hunger and in thirst and in nakedness and in want of all things. He shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck until he has destroyed thee. God gives fair warning to the children of Israel that if they don't put him first, they will face his wrath and chastisement. And then we read this, interesting verses, verses 49 and 50 of this same passage. The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flyeth, a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand, a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young. He classifies this cruel, barbaric nation as having no compassion for the older, no respect for the older generation, no compassion or ministry to the younger generation. We hear a lot in America today about ministry to the young. The young are fairly revered in America. Schedules change, everything is impacted for the young. Great deals of Money go into their education. Everything's thought toward that end. What about the old? When God looks at culture, he warns the Israelite people that that barbaric culture is classified, it's indicated, its characteristic is this. They have no regard for the young or the old. On both ends of the spectrum, they have no need for such life. 2 Timothy 3 is a classic passage to identify the age in which I believe we now live. In 2 Timothy 3, the Bible says, this know also that in the last days perilous times shall come. And then those perilous times, the last days, that's the days in which we live. The last days began at the ascension of the Lord into heaven. And the last days go throughout the eschaton. Okay, we're living in the last days. And as we live in the last days, the perilous times that have come are discussed in 2 Timothy 3. The word of God says, men will be lovers of their own selves. That's being taught by psychologists today. You can't love others until you love yourself first. You know what? You've loved yourself from the moment you were born. No man ever yet hateth his own flesh, Ephesians 5 reminds us. But we're to deny ourselves anyway, it says, they'll be lovers of themselves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection. So there are many different words for love, of course, in the New Testament. We have the word from which we get our word Philadelphia, philos, brotherly love. We have agape. Here the word that's being used without natural affection is storge or storgos with an ah, preposition in front of it, astorge, not loving. And we read 2 Timothy 3 without natural affection, and as English readers we would typically think that means homosexual affections, that's not natural. But that's not what 2 Timothy 3 is talking about in verse three. The without natural affection, astorge, really is referring to without normal family love. Without normal family affections. That's characteristic of the last days. Help me out here a little bit. How do we see that being lived out in our culture today? An absence of normal family affections is seen by children that don't respect their parents. That's been ongoing. We have that in the 10 commandments. It's a constant problem throughout the ages. Without natural affection in our generation, without typical family love, Children killing their parents, yes. So we have that happening, children killing their parents. Parents killing their children, all right? 60 plus, 600 rather, over 600,000 abortions a year in America. What a terribly unnatural thing, right? Without natural affection. Other ways we see this. divorce, just a cruel divorce rate, so much so that people have pulled away altogether from even the concept of marriage, preferring to live with one another rather than bind themselves in something that's going to take a legal disengagement. We are living in a time of without natural affection. We're working through the concept of building families of faith. And as we deal with the concept of building families of faith, here's a part of the spectrum we don't think about too often. How do we minister to aging parents? Questions arise. What's my responsibility to my aging parents? Do I have a financial responsibility to help with my aging parents? What does the Bible have to say about my options when dealing with my aging parents? And by the way, in preparation for this, As I thought about our church family, I thought with great joy about the number of examples of dealing so wisely, so well, so kindly, and so lovingly with family members. Folks, if you watch week by week, there are fellow church members here who bring their aging parents to church. There are many that we pray for as they minister to their needs. And it's not just the aging parents, it's also the very dependent children that require an unusual amount of care. And we thank the Lord for that. It's a true testimony of biblical love. And there are many here. I've had the joy of being the pastor here long enough to see some men whose wives have had very disabling strokes and watched their husbands for years and years minister with such kindness and such love without any complaint. And on the other side, dear ladies who have ministered to their husbands, I was just with Alice Level this week. Linda and I went over on Monday to prepare for the funeral for Joe as we were in their home. Alice just happened to mention that's where Joe's been sleeping on that chair in the room for the last couple of years. And as soon as she said that, I thought, she's been caring. Quite a burden. Her husband, after all, when he was 55 had a major heart attack and had four quadruple bypass and those things happen. But you never know it on Sunday with the joy that they exuded week by week coming in together and sharing life together. Those are joyful things. All that to say we are blessed to have a congregation that gets it on this topic. But I think it's our responsibility as we think through the matter of family to say, how do we ground our affection for our ministry to our aging parents in scripture? So let's start with God's counsel for children. God's counsel for children. Now I'm talking about adult children. Interpersonal relationships between the generations are dealt with very carefully and very clearly in God's word. There's general counsel that we should never forget. When it comes to these interpersonal relationships between the generations, God gives general counsel and that general counsel begins with this, the younger should respect the older. The younger should respect the older. Leviticus 19, verse 32 says, thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old men and fear thy God, I am the Lord. Rise up, show respect by standing when an older person comes near before the hoary head and honor the face of the old man. Proverbs 16, verse 31. The hoary head is a crown of glory. Hoary head means white hair or gray hair. For those of us who have no hair, I don't know if this verse applies. But the hoary head is a crown of glory if it be found in the way of righteousness. Eastern cultures often understand this far better than we in the Western culture. In the Eastern culture, it's not unusual for a father to be called a most honorable father, an honor given even in the title. Our Western culture has dynamically changed over the last 100 years to become a very youth-focused culture where the older folks are pushed aside and the wisdom that they have and the respect they ought to be given has been forgotten. How did that happen? Well, sociologists will talk about the industrialization of our culture, how people moved off the farms into the cities, and then especially with the marketeering toward our culture that happened post-World War II, All of a sudden, the marketeers discovered that there's this group with expendable income, and if you wanna really make money with your product, the best people you wanna market your product to are those with that expendable income, and we're gonna put that maybe from 15 up to 35 or 30, somewhere in there. Youth culture took over. You know, the word adolescence is not in the Bible. The whole concept of adolescence is not in the Bible. Even a child is known by his doings, the word of God says. And the Apostle Paul says clearly to the Corinthians, when I became a man, I put away childish things. There are two spectrums in the Bible. There are children and there are adults. There's nothing in between to be idealized and honored and fond over, okay? And that's a sad reality in our culture today. That's another topic for another family session, but I feel better now that I've said that. Let me ask you a question. How can we demonstrate respect? The Bible says, Rise up before the hoary head, honor the face of the old man. The hoary head is a crown of glory if it's found in the way of righteousness. The Bible is assuming and declaring that there ought to be respect shown to the older generation. Help me out here. Some of the older generation can pipe in. You've been waiting a long time to share on this, but others along the way, how can we help our children and others in this church recognize what do we do and what can we do to make sure that the older are given the respect that the Bible expects them to receive, requires them to receive. What can we do? Honor their experience and knowledge of life. And I think by that, I'm gonna assume, Lee, you're saying get their counsel. In fact, we're gonna talk about that in a moment. Honor their experience in life. How about some practical ways? Loy? Speak well of them when you do speak of them. Before all the generations. That's really good input. Back here. Dan? Let them teach. Give them opportunity to teach what they know. Others? Darlene? Your mother was living and you called her every single day. And my wife is doing the same thing with her mother now, who's gonna be turning 95 in February, calling her, showing that respect that we care. But I'm thinking kind of more corporately and congregationally. Let me just suggest some things along the way that we like to do as a family and you'll find me doing as your pastor, okay? When I say to my children, slow down and walk, When you're in church, do not run. I always include with that, you might knock somebody down. And that would be a devastating thing. Think of others. Think of the older people in this church. When an older person comes to greet you, look them in the eye and you stand up. And you shake their hand. Yeah, we've been doing this with kids for a long time. But I want my children to know to respect the older generation and not to look away, not to run away, but to engage with those older ones and show respect in that way. If an older person comes to talk to my children, I want them to stand up. The Bible says, rise up before the hoary head. It might not always happen, but I always say we're working on it. When we dismiss for fellowships, anybody never notice what I do? I always let the older people go first. Well, you know, in our culture, mostly the little ones are fed first. Why? Because they don't know how to behave if they're not fed first. Well, maybe they need to learn how to behave and honor the older ones as they go first. So yeah, we do that at church, and that's not accidental. I want to tie that in philosophically to what God's Word says. We want to show regard and respect and demonstrate it in the congregation of the church so that our children get that growing up. They're not living in a culture where it's seen anywhere else. So if we're not doing it here, it's not going to happen. So the younger is to respect the older, the younger is to listen to the older, that's already been implied, but let's bind it to scripture. Proverbs 23 says in verse 22, hearken unto thy father that begat thee, despise not thy mother when she's old. Rehoboam in 1 Kings chapter 12 made the dreadful mistake, you recall, having taken the throne after Solomon, his father, and listening to the younger generation when the older generation wanted to tell him what he really needed to hear. Lost the kingdom. The kingdom was split because he did not listen to the older generation. It's interesting in Job 32, when Job's three friends have finished what they needed to say, Elihu, the fourth friend who's come near, the Bible says, Elihu waited till Job had spoken because they were elder than he. In Job's generation, Elihu knew. I don't offer my opinions when the older people are speaking. Now that they've gone silent, it's time for me to be heard. And so the younger are to listen to the older. A few weeks ago, it's months ago now, I guess, I was standing in the foyer before the Sunday school hour and Cody Hughes, we prayed for Cody this evening, came in not long after he'd been diagnosed with cancer. Just graduating from high school, fine young man who's been coming to church here from the time he was a preschooler. He has a friend in this church and I looked over and I saw him seated on the couch under the missionary display out in the foyer with Bill Remington. Here's a recent high school grad And it fell up in his 90s. And they sat there and talked probably 15 minutes. It was a pretty remarkable thing. And I know what Bill does every day. I know he's praying for Cody. I just know that. And I know he cares about him. Bill stood out in that foyer and greeted that young man from the time he was a preschooler. And now when that young man's going through a time of adversity, he's looking for someone who can offer him counsel. And I thought, what a wonderful demonstration of Cody living God's word. He wants the counsel of the older. The value of that, folks, is just wonderful. The younger is to listen to the older. The younger is to speak gently to the older. 1 Timothy 5 says in verse 2, rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father, and the younger men as brethren, the elder women as mothers. Talk to them, I don't know if I should say it this way, talk to them like you'd talk to your father or mother. Depends on who you are, right? Talk to them like you should talk to your father and mother, okay? Remembering that James chapter one says, pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction, to keep yourself unspotted from the world. Having put a foundation of general counsel, let's move to some specifics this evening. God who formed the family offers some very specific counsel for every family. The first part of that counsel is without debate, Children are to honor their parents. Having come through the Ten Commandments recently, we came to that Fifth Commandment, that one that's the hinge between the commandments that are vertical and the commandments that are horizontal. In that Fifth Commandment, we read, honor thy father, thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God hath given thee. Augustine said, if anyone fails to honor his parents, is there anyone he will spare? Those who dishonor their parents will dishonor anyone. And the duty to honor is both lifelong and unconditional. It's lifelong and unconditional. I know some would respond, Pastor, it's virtually impossible to honor parents like mine. Well, Romans chapter 13 says in verse seven, honor to whom honor is due, no conditions. It doesn't say honor to whom honor is due except if that's an unconditional lifelong obligation to honor our parents. So we've already discussed some of the ways honor can be shown. I appreciated Darlene saying she calls her aging mother, she called her aging mother on a daily basis. What are some other ways we can honor? You know, what Loy said was really good in this context. Be careful you don't honor your parents when you speak evil to your friends about them, even if you're an older adult. You know, oh, my mother's driving me nuts. That's not an honoring statement. You might be 60 years old with an 82-year-old mother. You just dishonored your mother. Be careful about what you say. What other ways can we honor or dishonor our parents as we get older? This is dealing with aging parents predominantly. Include them in family events. Yeah, take vacation time and build some time in to go. I know my wife, when we'd go visit her mother, she'd do. And her mother would participate as much as she could. She was in the house that her husband built until she was in her 90s. She was in there alone for many years. And so it'd be spring cleaning every time we went. And her mom really appreciated that. Let me get behind everything and make sure it was all clean. You? Don't treat them like children. I appreciate that, Hugh, because that can happen, can't it? It can be really frustrating. The older person may not be able to respond as quickly as they used to, but it doesn't mean their brain's turned off, right? So don't treat them like children. Lily, take care of their needs. Yes, education. You know, that ongoing stimulation of the mind and education, reading to them when their eyes are failing, having conversation with them about things that would interest them, bringing up the past. We had the joy for the last couple of years of my dad's life of having him here just a couple of blocks from the church. And so I went over in the morning to get my dad up out of his bed. He required a Hoyer lift. Get him into his chair, out of the chair at night, back into the bed. And Chase loved to go with me. And my dad physically was unable to mobilize. He was totally dependent for people to feed him, totally dependent for everything. But his mind was clear. So Chase would go with me, and Chase would go into the room and say, oh, Grandpa, who was the 22nd president? Boom, just like that. What was his wife's name? Boom. What was his religion? Boom. He had it. We could quiz him on, OK, you've got 18 grandchildren. What are their birthdays? Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. The mind was just all there. What a blessing to be able to stimulate that and have conversations about things that he enjoyed. Darlene. Yes. Oh, that's great. That's great. Darlene said one of her daughters would go to her mother and have her tell stories of her childhood and record those. And she'd like to make a CD of that for her family. Those are wonderful things. Be creative. Everybody speaks different love languages, but be involved in that regard. And then what about this? Children are to provide for their parents. Take your Bibles and go to first Timothy chapter five, first Timothy chapter five. Especially in the culture in which we today live, this has become a matter of pretty hot debate. What's my obligation to my children? Remember that God's word crosses every culture. And in 1 Timothy chapter five, we begin in verse three with these words. Honor widows that are widows indeed. But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to show piety at home Require their parents for that is good and acceptable before God. So verse four says, if your mother's a widow and you're her child, or your aunt is a widow and you're a nephew in this context, in other words, just think about family members and your responsibility from God's word, show piety at home and require their parents In other words, give back to that one who gave so much to you, for that's a good and acceptable to God. She that's widowed indeed and desolate trusteth in God and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day. If she's widowed and has no children, she's widowed indeed and she trusts in God. But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she lives. These things give in charge that they may be blameless. If any provide not for his own, especially for those of his own house, He denied the faith, he's worse than an infidel. Now this is a cross-cultural commandment that God gives to every adult who has a dependent parent. We have a responsibility. And the responsibility is such that if we don't care for it, verse eight says you've denied the faith and you've actually become worse than an infidel. The problem of providing for one's parents is not a new problem. And I hate to even say it by way of problem. That's a difficult way to say it. The issue, let's make it a little bit more neutral. The issue of caring for one's parents is not a new issue. It's an old issue. In fact, Jesus spoke to the Pharisees in the Gospel of Mark And in Mark chapter 7, you remember how they had this custom that these Pharisees who were ever so religious would say, it is Korban. You know, your parents have needs and you have money. Wish I could give it to them, but it's Korban. It's promised to the work of the Lord. And the Lord would have none of it. He said, that's wicked. You've made a new way of isolating your parents from what you know you ought to do by saying it's dedicated to a higher purpose, it's dedicated to God, it's Korban, it's for God. Jesus said, no, that's a wrong way to handle this issue. The right way to handle the issue is to see it from God's word. And God's word says, yes, we have a responsibility. So let's just expand the conversation a little bit. There are some in the generation that is aging right now who would say, I don't want to participate in any government program to assist. And the number of these is becoming fewer. But I've known many of them. time of ministry who said, you know, for me to take anything from the government to help me out with my healthcare needs or in my housing or anything like that, that's welfare. I'm not going to do that. What do we think about that? Anybody ever had any conversation like that with an aging parent or perhaps in times past that kind of conversations come up? Get real quiet real fast here. I know you have. Thank you, Darlene. Can you say it good and loud? Okay, so we're a capitalistic country most of the time. But there's part of our country that's pretty socialistic. When Social Security came out, that was the mantra of the strong capitalist. Social Security is socialism. And you know what? It is. And we've all paid our taxes. I had this conversation with my father who, was a depression child. Born in 1930, he lived through those nine years of the depression in his early life, and it will impact you. He was very frugal, very wise with his funds, but when it came to having to have a conversation about, Dad, there are things that can help you, that word help didn't sound good to him. And so what Darlene just said is exactly what I share. Dad, you've been paying into this for 90 years, time you took a little bit out of it. Well, I don't wanna take welfare. You're not taking welfare, dad. You have paid for others before you and you're still paying. Take a little bit out of it. And the conversation went well. I'm thankful for it. I think that's an appropriate wisdom in the culture in which we're living, that there are means within our own church family. We've had people who have shared in workshops, Kate Conk, is a wonderful resource on having conversations about what things are available to us in caring for the needs of our parents as they're aging, whether it be for medical supplies or ultimately for care in the home. And I do believe that there's wisdom in participating. You are paying taxes for a purpose. And that purpose, by the way, I think is a good thing in our community. I'm not offended at all by people having the blessing of sharing in the care that's needed when people grow older in that way. Comments on this? Thoughts on it? Okay, so what I'm saying is, yes, you have a biblical responsibility financially. So work with wisdom, with the resources that are around about you in the community, to minister to your parents with wisdom, with all of those resources available. And there are those who can help out with the whole legal affairs side of it and the financial side of it, but don't dismiss yourself from it and say, well, they've got social security, they're on their own. No, that's not what the Bible is teaching. What about God's counsel for aging parents? And I need to watch my time here. While the counsel of the Lord for the adult children seems clear, there's also counsel for aging parents. First, have a parenting plan. We're all aging. From the time your child was born, you became an aging parent. As an aging parent, have a parenting plan. We're responsible for the instructing and disciplining of our children. Proverbs 29.15 says, the rod reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame. How do you leave your child to themself? What does that mean? No discipline. The failure to discipline usually begins with just basic neglect, turning a blind eye. and not involving. That is not a successful way to parent. Stay involved. If you don't mind me saying this, even if you do, I'm gonna say it anyway. We are, you read this verse, the rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself. We are becoming a culture that's intentionally leaving a child to themself. Plugging them into a screen and walking away. We have electronic daycare. that's fascinating the eyes and moving the minds of our children in ways that you might not even know where they're going. You've left them to themselves, and they bring their mother to shame. When the Bible says, and you fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. But God gives the responsibility for the instruction and the discipline of the children to the parents, not to the Christian school, not to the youth group, not to the junior church worker, and ultimately not to the police. Have a financial plan. Plan to save, plan to save. Proverbs 6 says, go to the aunt thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise, which having no guide, overseer or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer and gatherth her food in the harvest. Have a plan to save. The aunt, if it waits till winter to bring in what's necessary, will not live. Making hay while the sun is shining. I don't know if ants eat hay. But Proverbs 21 verse 20 says, there's treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise. It's the foolish man that spends it up. What we discovered when we talked about finances in our last meeting. If you spend less than you make long enough, you'll do all right. It's an old adage, but it works. According to the most recent survey of consumer finances completed in 2022, The median retirement savings for all families in the United States is $87,000. If you're going to be able to retire with some measure of financial independence, most financial counselors say you need to start saving about 5% of your income between the ages of 25 to 35. and then move that up to about 10% of your income after 35 in order to land in retirement years with some measure of financial independence. You've got to go for the long haul, folks, and you need to get started fast. Give counsel to your children and to your children's children that when it comes to the matter of saving, the faster you get started, the easier it's going to be. It's never easy to start, but it's a lot easier to start when you have little. And people say, that doesn't make sense. But it works. Taking 10% out of little hurts a whole lot less than taking 10% out of much. And if you get in the habit along the way, you'll do fine. Research from labor economist and professor at the new School of Social Research, Teresa Ghilarducci, suggests that 10% of Americans 10% of Americans between the ages of 65 and 75 will retire with some measure of financial stability. That means 90% don't. Well, have a financial plan, and then plan to give, plan to give. It's interesting in Job 42 that we read about the daughters of Job. Remember God gives him more sons than daughters. In Job 42 verse 15 it says, and their father Job gave them his daughter's inheritance among their brethren. Remember it's best to make decisions about the future of your wealth before others have to make the decisions for you. It's interesting in Luke chapter 12, a man comes to Jesus and he says, Would you talk to my brother about our inheritance? Does anybody remember how the Lord responds? Would you talk to my brother about the inheritance? How does Jesus respond to that? Well, since we don't know, let's go there. Luke chapter 12. Luke chapter 12. You don't have to live very old to have somebody come to you and say, hey, I got this problem with, with a will in our family? Could you talk to my brother or my sister? What do you think I ought to do?" Conversations like that happen. It happened in the life of the Lord, too. In Luke 12, beginning in verse 13, one of the company said to him, Master, speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me. How does Jesus respond? Here it is. He said unto him, Man, who made me judge or divide her over you? He said unto them, Take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things that he possesses. Jesus himself would not get involved in that conversation. I have not been made judge over you on this matter. He was not a probate judge. He walked away from it, but he walked away from it with a lesson for all of his disciples. The burden behind this whole thing is covetousness. Beware of that. Make the decisions about your inheritance before somebody else has to make those decisions for you. And recognize when you're making your will and you're putting things on paper, many who inherit will squander what they inherit. So a Yale study in 2023, 69% of Americans, 69% of Americans will bequeath everything to their children. I'm sorry, I said it wrong. 69% of everything that Americans bequeath goes to their children. There we go. 69% of what is placed in wills will go to children. 2% goes to charity. But then this is what's interesting. Of that wealth that's been distributed, 70% of inherited wealth, 70% of inherited wealth will be dissipated during the second generation. And 90% by the third generation. In other words, you made it and earned it and stacked it up, you passed it on to somebody who didn't have a clue of what to do with it, so it was squandered. Maybe they had half a clue, but by the next generation, it's gone altogether. Listen to what Proverbs chapter 20 says in verse 21. An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning. Proverbs 20 verse 21, an inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning, but the end thereof shall not be blessed. Whoa, I've got this windfall, poof, it's gone. Be careful. And dear Christian, be careful. There are many in this room who throughout their lives have been excellent, careful stewards. Do not take the prodigal son as your example of how to handle your will. The point of the prodigal son and the father giving this young man all this to waste in righteous living is not to give financial advice. The point of the parable, every parable has a single point, remember, and the sub points under it, be careful with. But there's no sub point under it that's teaching, hey, since the father of the prodigal gave him everything to go ahead and squander, that's what I should do too. You may be doing exactly what's most wrong. You may have a child right now. You know if they came and asked you for $10,000, it would be squandered in righteous living and you'd be, I would never do that. It doesn't make any difference doing it now or when you're dead. The result's the same. But they won't think I love them if I die and don't leave it to them. You don't give it to them now, do they think you love them now? What's the difference? Do what's best for the cause of Christ, for the stewardship that God has given you in heaven. Have a financial plan and have a spiritual plan. Have a spiritual plan. I should go back here. Have a spiritual plan. Be confident as you age that God can supply all your needs. And remember that wise parents strive to pass along, first and foremost, a legacy of faith. Proverbs 17, six says, children's children are the crown of old men and the glory of children are their fathers. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Yeah, I have a goodly heritage. We want to pass on, most importantly, our faith to our kids. Somebody said, and I like this, you don't know how well you've done as a parent until you see your kids parenting their own. Well, that's true. And when you see your kids parenting their own and going the right way, that's glorious. Take your Bibles and go to John 19. We'll close with this, John 19. As in every other way, Jesus, our great High Priest, who is touched with all the feelings of our infirmities, sets an example for us in this matter as well. In John 19, Jesus is on the cross, enduring inexpressible pain. And he saw his mother, verse 26, and the disciple standing by whom he loved. It's John standing there. And he said to his mother, woman, behold thy son. Then saith he to his disciple, behold thy mother. Now some will say the first behold thy son is for Mary to look at him on the cross. Others will say, woman, behold thy son is for Mary to look at John. If you take that latter view, it makes some measure of sense because in verse 27, he said to his disciple, behold thy mother. And from that hour, that disciple took her into his own home. Do you see the example of the Lord here? He knew his responsibility. He was the eldest son. My son-in-law is from India. He's the eldest son. In many cultures, that means a great deal. It's the eldest son. I would have to say probably the majority of cultures in the world, the eldest son has the primary responsibility for the care of the parents. That was clearly the case in the times of Christ in the Middle East. He's the eldest son, he's dying, and his mother is at the foot of the cross. He knew his responsibility. He saw her situation. Joseph is not there. Most people believe Joseph is not at the cross because Joseph died before Jesus was crucified. Most people believe that Joseph was likely older than Mary when he took her to be his wife and he died sometime before Jesus entered into his public ministry. He knew her need and he provided for it. He provided through John. He was not unwilling to allow others to assist in that which now he would no longer be able to accomplish. But he could die at peace, if you will, in this regard, as he could in every regard. He knew he cared for his parent. He knew he cared for his mother. He gives us an example that we would follow in his steps. Lord, we thank you for the conversation this evening about a matter we seldom talk about in church, but we need to. Help us to take the foundational principles, make much of them, so that we can know your blessing in our homes, our families, before our children. Lord, that we would walk before you with a perfect heart, walk in our house in that way, and please you. And we'll thank you for it in Christ's name, amen.